Five Olentangy Local Schools students will stay home for at least 25 days or until they get a
mumps vaccine in the wake of news of two connected cases in one school.

And if more cases emerge, those students might not return before the school year wraps up on May
23.

Because of the cluster of two cases and the 25-day incubation period for mumps, students without
vaccines and those with compromised immune systems have been told to stay home.

The five students are not fully vaccinated, said Delaware County Health Commissioner Shelia
Hiddleson. If they receive their vaccines, they’re allowed back in school, she said.

This week, Dr. Teresa Long and Susan Tilgner, health commissioners for Columbus and Franklin
County, respectively, sent letters to school leaders to pass along to parents that encourage
vaccination and inform them that children who aren’t fully vaccinated might have to stay home for
25 days or longer if mumps cases cluster in schools.

In Ohio, 1.5 percent of public-school students have been exempted from vaccines, many of them
because their parents object. The percentage of exempted students in the Olentangy district also is
1.5, district spokesman Michael Straughter said.

Hiddleson said she spoke yesterday with parents of two of the children, and one of the parents
said her child cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. No parents told Hiddleson of plans to
vaccinate.

Straughter would not say which school has two linked cases. Until yesterday, the district had
reported one case each in Liberty Tree and Scioto Ridge elementary schools, Liberty and Shanahan
middle schools, and Olentangy and Liberty high schools. Straughter said the school with a second
case is not a high school.

The district will work with the five students to keep them up to speed academically, Straughter
said.

Hiddleson said the second child sickened in the school in question had symptoms starting on
Tuesday, so the unvaccinated children will be allowed to return on May 10 barring additional
cases.

Hiddleson said she and other central Ohio health commissioners are relying on guidance from the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that this measure, while disruptive to the
families and children, is necessary to contain the outbreak.

It’s designed to protect the unvaccinated children and decrease the risk that they’ll get sick
and infect others. Children who have been vaccinated can get mumps because the two shots are only
80 to 85 percent effective.

The central Ohio mumps outbreak grew to 244 cases in 10 counties yesterday. Of those, 151 cases
have been linked to Ohio State University, where the outbreak began.

The central Ohio outbreak is so big that the region has more than half as many mumps cases as
the nation did in all of 2013, when the CDC reported that 438 people in 39 states had mumps.